ST Augustine's High School is calling for re-marking of Year 9 English tests after finding what they believe are "serious shortcomings" in the external marking.

The Year 9 pupils at the Hunt End school did well in their Scholastic Assessment Tests (SATs) in maths, with 81 per cent of pupils gaining Level 5 and above against a target of 80 per cent.

In science, the school beat the 80 per cent target by three per cent.

But in the English SAT, the pupils achieved just 77 per cent against a target of 90 per cent, which they managed to achieve last year.

When the school received the results, members of the English department scrutinised the marking and in their opinion, found serious errors.

Headteacher Carol Buchanan said: "I feel these pupils have been done a grave disservice. The staff have found serious shortcomings in the way it was marked.

"The last time we achieved under 80 per cent for English was before 1997 and we've received 80-90 per cent since.

"When we got the papers back we were shocked at the results, so the English staff were all given a sample question to mark without knowing what that pupil had actually received.

Mrs Buchanan said the school was paying for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) to re-mark 10 sample questions.

If errors are found, the QCA will remark all the papers and the results will be changed.

A QCA spokesman said: "We are confident that the quality of the marking of the tests is robust but schools can ask for their marking to be reviewed if they do have concerns."